Why They Think We Are Idiots

Its taken me a week to really focus my thoughts on a meeting I attended from a group that purports to train individuals on defending the creationist position. I have to say that I was less than impressed. Perhaps I caught them on an off night, perhaps not. My biggest frustration is that if this is the caliber of argument that a Christian is expected to present when confronted by an evolutionist, it is no wonder they think we are idiots (see cartoon )

The meeting started with what I am sure is a well meaning God fearing older gentleman sharing a testimony on an article he read in the paper the past week. This article talked about the orbits of certain planets and their location in comparison to the sun during a rare eclipse. His proof that the Big Bang was false could be found in the precision of the orbits of the planets. Why? Because the big bang was an explosion and something as orderly as the orbits could not come form an explosion. That's it....nothing about gravity and the attraction that large dense stars exert. This is anecdotal evidence at best. Now I am not saying that I believe in the Big Bang, but I am saying that if you are going to get into defending a biblical 7 day creation position, you can't use sentimentalism. You need to talk in facts and theory based on good assumptions. The proponents of the Big Bang would say that from a gravitational singularity there was a big bang that continues to expand the borders of the universe. They say this happened 13.7 billion years ago, and that over that time the gravity of larger objects have pulled smaller objects into orbits. From a scientific point of view this is compelling, but you can't defend against it by saying that order can't come from an explosion. If you take dynamite and stick it into a hill and detonate it you will get chaos....for a time. Then the dirt settles and you get structure, maybe different that before but order has been restored. I have no doubts the Big Bang is flawed, but this defense will never cut it if we want to actually compete in the realm of ideas.

The special guest speaker for the evening was a gentleman who was an associate pastor from the Philadelphia area. He wasn't an academic, and he wasn't a scientist. He was a theologically trained pastor. He had recently written a book on evolution and he was "exposing it for the fraud it was." I was hoping that this man would present the scientific approach that was needed to enter the intellectual discussion on the topic. I was disappointed. His presentation was an overview of his book, and it was again full of information where it was obvious that good research techniques were not done or the information that was presented was to evoke a emotional response. One example was a recent discovery of what looked like human skeletal remains of two hands. These remains were fossilized (a rare find). They were also found near some dinosaur fossils, another rare occurrence. Some scientist have theorized that they weren't human hands but large sea turtle fins. This pastor bragged about how he used a google picture search to find human skeletal hands. He then used this picture to convince us that they were human. What would have really pushed this point home was if he had shown us the a picture of actual sea turtle fins, but he didn't. Perhaps they were sea turtles, but because of the point he wanted to make, he only searched the evidence until he found what he wanted. He interspersed his talk with slides of school children and their learning evolution in public schools and a program to take these kids for an hour a day and teach them creationism and how they are coming to Christ as a result. That's great, but how does it expose evolution as false. His biggest argument spread throughout the presentation was that evolution was a natural promoter of racism, and because Hitler, and Stalin were racist, that evolution was barbaric....ergo false. His logic was impossible to flow on some of his points and it felt like he was trying every way to emotionally convince us that evolutions were completely evil. What really peeved me was the way he continually used scripture out of context to support whatever slide he was on. He was eisegetically preaching on creationism and doing the scripture a disservice.

It really shouldn't surprise me. Since the days of Finney the church has been using emotional arguments and sentimentalism to forward its agenda. Whats worse is that the only agenda the church should have is to declare the gospel. I can't help but feel that all these side issues are Satan's way of distracting us from that goal. We get so stuck on extending the general grace of the church to society that we forget to be the messengers of God's special grace to individuals. I know that their are intelligent men and women who are out there debating the position of creationism with fervor and intelligence, but people such as those I saw last week are hurting us more than they are helping.

Mission Alert - Spain

I am a bit excited and nervous. I have been asked to join a team of musicians that will be going to Spain in February. We will be ministering at a missionary women's conference. What a privilege to have an opportunity to use music to minister to those in the mission field. I don't have to many of the details at this time, but I do know that I will have to raise support for the trip. I will most likely have to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500 - $2000. If any of my faithful readers want to contribute, send me a note.

I'll post more details as I discover them, and please pray for me. I am not afraid to fly for the most part, but I am nervous in flying post 9/11. The world is a crazy place. So please pray for me on this. Also pray that the team would be united in spirit and purpose, and that we would be a blessing to those we will minister to.

Phone Saga Update

Our mail room guy just brought my new phone up. I feel like a kid with a new toy, but grrrrrrr I have to charge it for 8 hours before I use it. That is frustrating. Oh well, at least I can watch it charge at my desk the rest of the day. Just a random thought, MC_Shann (link to his blog on my links) and I are hanging out tonight at Starbucks with our crew. That should be fun. Last night we went to a meeting of a local group that defends creationism. I have some strong feelings on this that I am definately going to share, but its too much for this little update. Check back for it soon.

My Quest for a Flat Panel TV

I purchased a one bedroom condo back in January. Why not a condo? I’m busy and single, so not having to care for a yard, and having limited space aren’t my biggest concerns. I just need enough room for me, and the occasional visit from friends. I am also extremely anti-clutter and at least once a year I perform a ritual that involves throwing lots of stuff out (although lately I have a business arrangement with a friends wife to sell this stuff on eBay.) Because of my space constraints, I am constantly adjusting furniture placement and space usage in search of that mythical sweet spot of functionality and style (as much as a man can have style.) To this end, I have determined that my 32-inch Sony Wega TV is just too darn big for my space. I have had it about 1 ½ years and it has served me well, but I need the space. I have determined, after some research that I desire a 32 inch LCD flat panel TV. The front-runner in this quest is the Sharp AQUOS 32" Flat-Panel LCD HDTV. Take a look:



My speed bump in this process is that I am a bargain hunter and I don’t like to buy things, unless their coolness factor overpowers my better judgment. So I have come up with a brilliant (or mad) plan and that plan is…….Christmas! No, I am not asking for the TV for Christmas, but I am asking that those who usually give me gifts give a Best Buy gift card. I know that this will in no way total the cost of the TV, but I have a 2nd part to this plan. That is reward points. My bank checking account provides me with reward points for every purchase. At different point levels I earn different rewards. My bank offers this for free so it cost me nothing to participate. The redemption level that I am interested in is 20,000 points. That would earn me a $200 gift card to, yes that’s correct, Best Buy. I have 4500 points accumulated so far. I just need to use this card the entire Christmas season for my own purchases to build the point total up. My third part of this plan involves convincing my friends who may have large Christmas purchases to make, to allow me to make them for them and then they reimburse me. This will increase the money flowing through my checking account and thus increasing my points total. It’s a brilliant plan. Now if only I can make it happen. I’ll update my TV posts as we go along. My goal is to acquire this TV sometime in January. Check back faithful readers.

My Cell Phone Saga

So I realized that I haven’t posted in several days and that is not cool. I want to be more disciplined about this, so I have decided to share some more details about my cell phone saga. Let me go back to the beginning of the story. Last Christmas my mom and dad gave me some gift cards from Cingular so that I could apply them to the purchase of a Blackberry. I spend time doing research on what I had a need for and all the Smart Phones that could do what I wanted. At the end of this journey I decided I really had no need for a Blackberry, especially when you had another $50 added to your monthly service charge for its data package. Then I became enamored with the Sony Erickson w600i (see picture below).

It had a cool interface, and nifty camera, could play music and had a function that synced up with a calendar in outlook. I thought this phone would satisfy my needs. It also had no required data plan, so I purchased it using the gift cards (this is another story about how I couldn’t get them to accept the cards, but I won’t go into that). One of the cool features of the phone is the way it opens. It’s what is called a swivel. You can see how it opens in the picture. So the phone served me well, but I failed to use the calendar function because I really didn’t like the interface. The phone, camera and music player were all nice, but I really found that my iPod is superior in every way to this music phone in usability and quality. I loooove my iPod. But I also liked my new phone. So the year went by, and it became apparent that I really am too busy in my personal and business life to not have a PDA.

I started researching stand-alone devices and thinking about what I would get. I would get a stand-alone device because I had a phone I liked and an iPod for my music. I was thinking about making the move on the PDA sometime in December hoping to get a bargain with Christmas shopping, and then my plans changed dramatically. On Thursday of last week, I went to open my phone and it didn’t want to open. It was stuck halfway thru. So I closed it and tried again and it opened. I thought…”that’s weird.” SO I used it and then by the end of the call I forgot about the whole thing (I can be forgetful sometimes). Later I went to use it again and when I pushed with my thumb to open it, it snapped apart. Frustrating!!! So I called my provider and they said that it was sad that I didn’t have insurance and the phone was not under warranty for that issue. So this meant that I needed to get a new phone, but as I thought about this I also realized that it was another opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I started researching Smart Phones again. It had been a year and some of the things that I didn’t like were less of an issue, although I still did not want a Blackberry. I was determined that I wasn’t going to get something the size of a brick that I had to hold up to my ear. Thank goodness Cingular has just come out with their first flip smart phone (pictured below).

It is a computer in a phone, isn’t the size of a brick, and has all the functions I am looking for. The better news is that I discovered that my employer has a relationship with Cingular. This meant that I could go to the Cingular Business Premier website and they had special phone upgrade offers for me. I checked the local store and the phone (Cingualr 3125) listed at $450.00. Although I wanted it, I was not willing to pay that amount, but as with most cell providers you can get a better deal. I called and they quoted my $430.00, still not low enough. The premiere website listed it at 250.00 as part of my employee discount, and then as I singed up for a contract extension the price dropped to $128.00. I ordered it and it should arrive in a day or two. In the meantime I took my simm card out and put it into my moms cell phone, since she hardly uses hers. I had to do this because other than Skype I have no phone in my home. The only other frustrating part of this story is that it took my 3 days to order the phone online because Cingulars business premier website was up and down. The odyssey is almost over thank God. Now I just need to figure out what I should take from this situation because we learn from everything.

Shouldn't I Worry?

So I went out for coffee with some friends last night. We didn't talk about the elections at all. Does that make us irresponsible Christians? Shouldn't we be worried about who runs this country? Shouldn't we be frantically watching election results roll in and be on our knees praying that George Allen pulls it out in VA? I would say no. We must trust in the Lord. He is sovereign over the governments of the world. As citizens we have a responsibility to vote, and as Christians we have the responsibility to have our decision informed by godly principles. After we exercise that right, we are not to worry. Be not anxious brothers and sisters. For His own purposes, God wanted Nancy Pelossi to be the speaker of the house, and he wanted Beau Biden to be Delaware's Attorney General. I plan on writing more about my political views as they relate to politics in a day or two, but wanted to put a message out to calm down those who are spitting mad right now.

Holding Out For A Hero

I have been invited to a costume party on Saturday night at my friend KrebstarXXL's house. He lives there with his cousin. They throw parties 2 –3 times a year and it's always a good time. They have a room about 10x12 that they cram everyone into for dancing. They both love the Lord, so the parties are pretty safe. Even so, they don't shy away from inviting non-Christians to the affair. What a fertile ground to form relationships with non-believers that can be used as steps to sharing the gospel with them.

 

These parties usually have a theme involved. As I said, this one is a costume party. We are required to show up dressed as a superhero. I'm holding out for an idea of what hero to go as. I mean lets be frank, I do not have a superhero build. I'm sure one will come to me. I have noticed that Superheroes are the latest pop culture phenomenon to find its way into every part of our lives. There is a hit TV show about them, several movies recently have raked in big bucks and I even read an article the other day about a superhero appearing on a daytime soap opera. Could this say something about our culture? I'm sure some sociologist has a theory related to some political or geopolitical agenda that causes us to crave heroes. I also assume that there are Christians who would make an argument that we are seeking someone to save us. I'm not going to jump onto either bandwagon, but wanted to make the observation that there is something that causes us to find enjoyment in elevating individuals (fictional and not) to a place of hero status. We all want someone to look up to and someone who can right the wrongs that we feel powerless to oppose. I know who my heroes are, do you?

Harvey Cedars In A Nutshell

Ok I was able to locate my posts form the weekend (well not really, just the pics), so I thought I would reconstruct everything here to document what I could.
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Timeline 9:30 Thursday Night
So here is what the stage looked like when we arrived at 9:30pm Thursday night. Its a two level stage. Outside that door is the trailer full of sound equipment and other media paraphernalia. We had a half hour to unload before they locked this building (the chapel) up for the night. It took us about 20 minutes and then we went and got some food.

Here is a picture of Tony as he is setting up his drums. They sounded really good over the weekend. I love making music with Tony.

Here is a picture of some of the guys at TGI Fridays after we were done loading up. Its funny because we came back to the same table at the same restaurant on Firday for dinner before all the kids arrived. Thats Munchie closest to the camera In the background is Corrie and Jubie.

So we came back to Harvey Cedars and went to bed. All was well, until 5:58AM when I received a text message with the attached picture. It seems that a couple of our teens (who work at a coffee shop) were at work already and want to send me a picture of them in their Gilligans Island costumes. They were sad that I wasn't there to see them in person. They get really excited about dressing up at work.

Two minutes later at 6:00AM I got this picture. They apparently had had their coffee at this point and were happy. For those of you who haven't figured it out, meet Ginger, Mrs. Howell and Mary Ann.

Well after this I got up and showered. The Tony and Paulie and Peter and I (the guys in my room) went in search of Dunkin Donuts coffee, but could only find Wawa. That was fine, I drank two 24 oz. cups and was wired the rest of the day. We all met in the chapel at 9:30 and proceeded to set up. My good friend Jim Weaver (Pastor at Crossroads Presbyterian Church) always comes and leads leader devotions for the adults on this trip and I got to hang out with him and two of his daughters for a bit. Always nice to catch up with him.

We practiced some music and then as I mentioned earlier we went back to TGI Fridays and had the same waitress. After this we got back to HC and were waiting for everyone to show up. All the Church's showed by 9:30pm and we got things started. Below are some pictures taken that first night of kids in our group. Remember these were all taken with my phone. I am in the process of trying to get other pics and will add them as they come in.

It was a great weekend. The speaker (Matt Irvin) is a missionary to London with the Hindu community there. He spoke about our everyday calling to missions right here in our own back yard and around the world. He was very real and down to earth with the kids. I was very pleased that our kids were well behaved (mostly). The biggest snag was that the bus was late picking us up on Sunday. We were so ready to be home, but didn't actually get there until 5pm. Can't wait till next year.

Just a quick note to let you know that the one of the left aint no teen. Thats an adult (ha ha aha) . Anyway, check out her blog. She goes by FancyThis.

Stress!!!!!

I am so totally stressed out right now. I have so much going on. I want to stand on my desk and scream! I just decided to stop for a couple minutes and blog. Here are the things I have going on this week.

1. I am leading worship this Sunday morning at Church.
2. I am teaching this Friday night at Youth Group.
3. I have Choir Thursday night.
4. I have a college class tonight
5. I have a college student who wants to meet before Youth Group Friday.
6. I have a test on the college class Monday.
7. I am juggling 8 databases at work that all talk to each other and at this moment they seem to be speaking different languages.
8. I have a costume party to go to on sat night in which I have to be a super hero and I haven't gotten a costume yet.
9. I need to get a haircut at some point before the week ends.
10. I need to have some reports done for my boss before he leaves for Columbus tomorrow. These reports are a pain.

There......now I feel a little better. Pray for me. I spoke to some guys at Church today about the worship order that I needed to get them and I think I was a bit snippy. I really need to apologize to them.